A/N: So… chapter 2… Thanks to all of you who reviewed! I really appreciated it!
I got quite a few questions concerning the sisters' ages, their relationship to the Owens women et cetera, so here's a short explanation.
Prue: 25
Piper: 23
Phoebe: 21
Paige: 19
All four grew up with Grams in the manor, after Patty died. All four have their powers and have known they're witches their entire lives. They've only recently started fighting demons, however, since Grams's death a few months before robbed them of their anonymity among the magical community. Grams, on that note, has two older sisters: Frances and Bridget. Their cousin, Regina, died when she was still young, leaving behind two daughters: Sally and Gillian, aged respectively 24 and 22. For those of you that have seen the movie, I placed the events of this story roughly the summer before the Aunts 'spellbind' Sally to Michael, with Gilly visiting for the summer as well. If that makes sense.
Anyways, I hope this helped. Now, on to the story!
Chapter 2
- Sisters and Seagulls-
The small deck of the ferry was filling up with cars quickly. Piper shut down the engine as the car came to a complete stop again, shutting the window and pulling the keys out of the contact. Prue opened her door, hopping out of the car and quickly stretching. She could feel the muscles in the back of her neck tense up as she breathed in the crisp sea air and looked around her. The sun was now fully out, and climbing steadily across the clear blue sky, bringing the promise of yet another wonderful day. Behind Prue, Paige and Phoebe were clambering out of the car, bringing a brightly coloured shower of candy wrappers with them.
Prue reached inside the car and pulled out her sunglasses, before shutting the car door.
"Hey, pick that up!" She instructed her younger sisters who were now ridding each others' hair of the mess that had somehow found its way into it: especially Paige's was ridiculously filthy. Prue's face broke into a smile as she watched Phoebe pick a rather large piece of gum from Paige's neck, shrieking in disgust as both her and Paige realized what it was.
"They're kinda like monkeys, aren't they?" Piper's voice sounded beside her. "You know, defleaing each other and all…" "Hey!" Paige protested. "It's not my fault that Phoebe dumps her stuff on me!" "I do not!" Phoebe replied indignantly. "Do too!" "Do not! And besides, you don't need me to get filthy. You seem to get along fine on your own!" Paige swung a blow at Phoebe's head, which she swiftly avoided , retaliating immediately by squirting Paige with her water bottle. Paige shrieked, and started chasing her sister across the deck, nearly running into an elderly man.
Prue and Piper laughed as they watched their youngest sister chase Phoebe all the way to the other side of the deck, wrenching the water bottle out of her hands and dumping the contents all over her sister's head. Phoebe moved to get revenge, but seemed to forget her wrathful plans immediately when Paige shrieked and pointed down the side of the ferry. In a few short moments, both girls were hanging over the railing, straining their necks to see something, that neither Prue nor Piper could see, but was apparently very interesting. It was good to see Phoebe acting so carefree, Prue pondered. Her sister'd been riddled with guilt lately surrounding Grams's death and her feud with Prue, but the talk they'd had in the car last night seemed to have cleared all of that up.
Phoebe and Paige had similar personalities, both being fun-loving and outgoing in general, but Phoebe had always been a little… darker. She'd rebelled terribly as a teenager, hanging out with the bad-boy crowd and pissing off Grams whenever she could. And sure, Paige had had her moments as well, but on the overall she'd always remained herself, the happy youngest with the carefree personality and a million friends. Phoebe, however, had only gotten worse as time progressed, throwing herself into superficial relationships and growing apart from her sisters, despite Piper's peacemaking attempts and Paige's befuddlement. She had come around, however, after returning from New York, and Prue was glad for it. She'd missed her sweet and extroverted sister, no matter how much she might have denied it earlier.
"Prue? You still there?"
Prue was suddenly aware of Piper waving her hand in front of her face, trying to get her attention. "Oh, I'm sorry. I must have spaced off a little." "Yeah, I'd say you did," Piper laughed. "What were you thinking about?" They walked to the back of the ferry, looking at the large trails the boat was leaving. Piper rested her elbows on the railing, squinting against the clear morning sun. She shaded her eyes with her hand. "Just Phoebe," Prue replied. "I see," Piper replied. "She's changed, and I'm happy about it. She's becoming herself again, which is good. I missed her." "Yeah, me too." Prue admitted. "No!" Piper responded laughingly. "Prue, talking about her feelings? Missing Phoebe? Are you sick?" She put her hand up on Prue's forehead, pretending to check for a fever. Prue slapped her hand away. "Yeah, well, you know that I'll deny it under oath." Piper grinned, closing her eyes and relishing the feeling of the sun on her tired face.
"But seriously though, Piper," Prue picked up the subject again, " I was just thinking how much she and Paige are alike, and yet they're so different." "How do you mean?" Piper asked, shading her face with her hand again in order to look at Prue.
"Well, try to look at it this way: if you had to describe each one of us with one word, which ones would you choose?" Piper contemplated this. "You're 'surly', of course." Prue supplied, grinning cheekily. Piper cocked one eyebrow at her. "Right…" She drew out the word, before taking a breath and continuing. "Well, I'd say that the word 'proud' describes you best. Oh, I know," she continued off her sister's quizzical look, "there's more to you than just that, but it just seems to summarize your motivations best. Me? I'd like to think I'm 'kindness', or 'patience'." She waited for her sister's nod of approval, before continuing. "Paige would be… bubbly. Or wacko. Not sure which."
"Go with bubbly," Prue said. "It matches her hair accessory of the day." Piper smiled. "But Phoebe… I don't really know. She has Paige's bubbliness, if you will, she's perceptive, but at the same time she's just as proud as you are, and she can really get off track." Prue smiled at Piper's subtle insights. "You see what I mean?" Piper nodded, and both sisters fell into a silence as they watched their respective conversational subjects, now feeding something to the gulls.
"Hey, what is that they're feeding those animals?" Piper said suddenly. Prue squinted her eyes. "It looks like one of your sandwiches. You know, the ones with the tuna?" Prue grinned as Piper took off immediately, sprinting across the deck in the direction of their sisters, waving her arms and shouting something about wasting perfectly good food. She turned around to stare out over the ocean again. So much had happened during these last couple of months. Grams's death, Phoebe's return from New York, and, probably the biggest change of all: the loss of the relatively sheltered and anonymous life they'd led under Grams's witchy care. When their formidable demon-hunting grandmother had passed away, her three sisters had automatically looked to her to take over their little coven. Soon after, the demon attacks had begun, and suddenly her days had been filled with scrying, mixing potions, writing spells and saving innocents.
As a result, her performance at the museum suffered, and she'd received a formal warning to get 'back on track', to quote her executive manager. And failure was not something Prue was used to. She'd excelled in high school, in college, in everything she did. She'd never had to stop to consider what would happen if she didn't get what she wanted. It didn't matter, because Prue always got what she wanted. Got being the operative word in this case. And so, she'd cracked. She'd had a major fight with Phoebe, thrown a tantrum at the office, and had even blown up at Paige, who had stared at her, shocked, her round eyes filling with tears. And that had been the final blow. Prue had never made Paige cry. Never. Disgusted with herself, she broke down completely.
Piper had, as a final solution, proposed a relaxing holiday away from San Francisco and the local underground. New England had seemed the only logical choice. After all, what better way to relax than spending a few weeks away from all of the chaos back home, inconspicuously improving their magic under the watchful eyes of those she knew would never judge them: their family. Strong Aunt Frances and sweet Aunt Jet, Grams's older sisters who had remained in the family's ancestral home on the small island. Practical Sally, who craved so desperately to be normal, and vivacious Gilly, who was anything but. They'd spent several summers on the island before, but the last visit had been a while ago, when Prue was seventeen and Paige was eleven.
Prue sighed, adjusting her sunglasses as they slipped off the bridge of her nose, and smiled at the prospect of what she was sure would be the cure to all of her troubles. Her stomach growled at the thought of chocolate cake for breakfast, a family tradition Grams, sadly, hadn't continued. Great. Now she was turning into Paige, with her everlasting hunger. Grams had always told them it was the orbing. Burned a lot of calories, but Prue was sure it was Paige's active character that was responsible. Just as she was thinking this, she was startled out of her reverie by the abovementioned sister bounding up to her like a puppy dog. Piper and Phoebe seemed to appear out of nowhere as well.
"Hey, Prue, check this out! You can see the house from here!" Phoebe practically dragged her to the railing, pointing at the cape of the Island which they were currently sailing past. The top of a wooden lighthouse could be seen peeking over the cliffs, and the sight of it filled her with happiness.
"Come on, you guys," Paige had rolled the window down. She and Piper had already gotten in. "We're docking in a few minutes, get your asses into the car so we can actually go to that house." She ducked back inside, only to poke her head out again. "Hey Pheebs, I found your cd. I think I sat on it…" Prue could practically see Piper rolling her eyes from the front seat as Phoebe sprinted towards the car. Prue followed her, and sat down in the passenger seat as the ferry slowly sailed into the small harbor.
A/N: Aw… Poor Prue. She's had a lot to handle, hasn't she? Don't worry, we'll see more of the other sisters in the next chapter, which will also be the first time we meet the Owens'! I like to hear your opinions! Was it a letdown? All that you expected, if not more? Let me know and hit the nice shiny review button below!